


Tea Leaves

by vonuberwald (macabreromansu)



Series: Jem Hackett [1]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Gen, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-09
Updated: 2017-10-09
Packaged: 2019-01-15 06:53:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12315984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/macabreromansu/pseuds/vonuberwald
Summary: 'The first and only time he’d cried over his mother’s death was after he’d been eating a shitty freeze-dried meal and had gone to heat some water for some tea.'A young Jem grieves for his mother





	Tea Leaves

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a Sad Muse ask meme on Tumblr. The prompt was 'When was the last time your muse found themselves crying alone, with no one to support them?'

The first time he found himself crying alone was two days after his mother had passed from her injuries in the tiny metal cube that was their apartment. Aria had been and gone, sweeping through the place with a few of her men, promising retribution on the guys that had done it. But she had an entire space station to run and he was a twelve-year-old human kid, and too scrawny to boot, of little use to her until he got a little stronger, a little faster.

The first and only time he’d cried over his mother’s death was after he’d been eating a shitty freeze-dried meal and had gone to heat some water for some tea. Not the crappy stuff in a can or from the tube either. His mother had liked the  _real_  stuff, the one indulgence they’d shared together when her pay from bouncer duty at the club came in. He’d only realised he’d set two cups out when he came to pour the water and had had to set the stupid kettle down before he dropped it on his feet.

Bracing his back against the counter as he slid down it to sit on the floor, it came pouring out of him then, huge sobs that racked his under-sized, malnourished body. Hands pressed against his face so hard that there were marks later, he cried until he couldn’t anymore and was just left with shuddering gasps as he weakly pulled himself over and onto the only bed, facedown into the thin blankets.

Later, Aria would tell him that he had a father; she’d contacted him and told him in no uncertain terms to come and pick Jem up, that she had better things to do than raise a human brat, friend of his mother’s or no. It was her way of caring.

But right in that very instant, he felt like he was the smallest, most worthless being in the galaxy, now his Mama was gone.


End file.
